One Hundred Thousand Years Ago
by Jaal Ama Darav
Summary: One hundred thousand years ago, a spacecraft crashed on Earth's North pole. What was The Thing? And what did the alien pilot look like?
**One Hundred Thousand Years Ag** **o**

A gray flying saucer shaped craft hurtled through the depths of space at faster than light speed, trailing blue energy behind it.

No crew members walked its polished silver halls.

Only two living occupants remained in the ship, the male pilot, from a race named the Tseha and his best friend from the same race who had been wounded and was resting in the medical bay with healing gel on his wounds to keep him alive.

The pilot's own name was Nrfaash N'Orvala.

Sweat dripped down the pilot's purple ridged forehead. Two seven fingered hands danced across the green holographic display. Only one thought lingered- to get through the Orion arm and to the next arm of the galaxy, where their close but secluded allies awaited, named the Vredena. They had prototype superweapons capable of blowing up planets, while a prototype they were working on could take out a star, resulting in a supernova, or even according to rumor, hypernova.

They had isolated themselves out of fear of an evil organization, called Ber'Shada acquiring their weapons of mass stellar destruction. It was formed some decades ago, and had been responsible for several terror attacks, some which rendered planets unlivable for a time, in two cases permanently. Their motives were currently unknown, they were elusive and hard to catch.

He had to warn them that the terrible parasites, given the name T'xeyugh,were coming. They could save the galaxy from the worst- total assimilation.

The alien looked around to the door behind him, breathing heavily. The alien's purple eyes were wide open in fear, slanted towards what passed for an alien equivalent of a nose. The V-shaped mouth below the "nose" hid sharp teeth acquired from their primitive history as carnivores.

He didn't expect it to turn out this way. The pilot had prayed to his gods that his family, and other families the men had sent away to their allies, had made it.

The purple skinned alien went into a prayer again, praying he could make it fast enough, that their allies can set up a line fast enough to protect the non-space faring races from the terrible parasitesthat had taken their space.

The ship was a scout ship, faster than the refugee ships, knowing its speed would allow him to get to allied space much sooner than the refugees, who would be able to use their military ships to provide escort. His race's military stayed behind to buy precious hours and days, despite the awful fate that awaited.

He spoke in an alien language. The shipboard computer brought up the numbers in alien digits and letters- 3 days, 14 hours, 7 minutes.

The pilot shut down nonessential power to parts of the ship and redirected power to the faster than light engine and felt several G's while the inertial dampening adjusted for the speed. He checked to make sure the door was locked and all ways into the control room and medical bay were sealed. The time dropped- 1 day, 1 hour, 3 minutes.

The only power functioning at that point were critical systems and the way from the control room to the medical deck. Very few of the lights were on, those few very dim.

The alien inhaled before exhaling. He knew he couldn't push the faster than light drive too hard, it could explode, taking him with it. Or burn out, leaving him stranded in deep space with no way to warn their allies of the horror that was coming. He had pushed it to the limit instead, and just had to make sure he didn't crash into something.

The star map displayed several habitable planets with life, including a nearby one with readouts indicting a frozen North and South pole.

The pilot sighed. He wanted to sleep, needed it. No sleep for a week. Not since the horror became known. Another three days and hallucinations set in from sleep deprivation.

To keep himself from losing his mind to terror, he thought back to how this all begun. It wouldn't do any good to die from fear, being only a mere day and one hour out now.

It had started three local months ago. There was a conflict between two alien races, the Irede and the Huzurk. The Tseha were part of an alliance which stayed out of the conflict yet wanted to stop the coming war, knowing it would cause immense devastation if it occurred.

However, the alliance's first response team had come to the homeworld of the Huzurk, with diplomats to quell the anger by talking to them before deciding if further measures must be taken, they found the communications channels dead.

They landed with caution and explored, that's when those monsters attacked them. The T'xeyugh. The sole survivor was so badly shaken and broken he could only say that they were "Things" but such a generic name wouldn't do for such a horrific creature. He couldn't say anything else, ending up just curling into a corner whimpering and crying.

An advanced strike team was sent and found out what happened. And that was when they discovered that fire, and plasma, were the only ways to kill the creatures. One had to burn them completely so no part of them was left alive.

The Huzurk had created a bioweapon, a horrifying bioweapon. Something akin to a parasite. Upon contact with other life forms, it infects them with its cells which take over the host cells. Assimilation time varies. Then when it's complete, it is a perfect imitation and thus can choose whether to spread infection or not, sowing deception and paranoia into all. Even worse was the fact every part of the T'xeyugh can act individually. Severed limbs, organs, even bodily fluids.

The pilot shuddered in his seat upon that thought, feeling chills up his back. He shook his head, he didn't see any strange blood on board, he had used the cameras and saw the ship was clear, and now that he needed more speed, those were one of the systems shut down to provide more power.

The bioweapon had made its way to the alien race they were intending to strike, the Irede, and a distress call was sent to the alliance. The alliance military rushed to provide aid, but were too late. By then the bioweapon had ships under its command, even the military was absorbed. The T'xeyugh had smaller and weaker ships fly at faster than light speeds into those trying to stop them, destroying them. Bigger ones went to planets to infect them.

The pilot wiped his forehead. He wondered if what he saw was all a nightmare, maybe the Huzurk attacked and an explosion knocked him out. Maybe he'd soon wake up in the healing ward, and reunite with his family. Maybe it was all a stasis dream and he would soon be awoken.

As the T'xeyughspread, the pilot considered forth a plan to send refugees to their distant but close allies Vredena, who would be able to save them from the horrible plague. And thus, the alliance put the plan forth, sending many refugee ships from uninfected worlds. He had hoped one of the monsters didn't get onboard, it was one of the things which kept him awake.

His best friend laid wounded in the medical bay, alive though asleep. Healing gel was applied to the wounds which would last for the duration of the trip. Due to his condition, the pilot sealed every way in, even the vents were they arrived, the Anseri will be able to provide medical attention, as they are very well versed in the medical field, more so than the others.

* * *

Inside the medical bay, a streak of purple blood streamed from a vent. It flowed down the wall to the floor, paused, then headed towards the medical bed with its occupant on it. The liquid streaked up one of the silver front supports of the bed and headed for the alien, leaving a purple trail in the white sheets. With no pause, the blood slid up the face and into the mouth.

The wounded alien awoke choking, He clutched at his throat trying to cough it out, before thrashing about in agony while the Thing cells absorbed him from within. The alien's eyes went wide, tears streaming from the corners. He stiffened, tremors ran through his body, then he went still.

The assimilation soon completed, the alien was now a perfect imitation.

The creature stood up, landed on its feet, and walked towards the door, knowing where the control room was from the assimilated memories of the alien.

It stood in front of the door and its arms morphed into many slimy tentacles which slid into the slit between the doors, prying them open. The monster in disguise walked down the halls to the control room with one target in mind- the pilot.

* * *

The pilot heard footsteps and froze. He knew no one else was on the ship except his wounded friend. Who could it be?

He touched symbols on the control panel to bring power back to the camera he needed. His eyes widened, his friend wasn't there.

A horrific alien screech emitted from the direction of the door.

The pilot froze in fear, before regaining his senses. He quickly looked at the star map and put an auto pilot course for the nearest planet and specified the South pole. With a single button press the ship would head there and crash, letting the cold freeze the monster.

The pilot quickly stood up and took his pistol from his belt.

Purple slimy tendrils were sliding through the door and slowly inching it apart.

Soon, a mockery of his friend stood there, arms merging back into a perfect imitation state.

The alien raised his gun. "Derzthe, gra besravud!" He fired a shot at the head of the creature

To the pilot's shock, it remained standing though its head hung backwards over its back, attached by only skin at the back of its neck.

The alien fired several more times. The first shot hit it dead center, burning a hole in it, the second and third ones struck the left leg and right arm.

The creature appeared to be hurt, falling to its knees screeching. A moment later, the wounded limbs became tentacles and the head opened up revealing more bloody and slimy tentacles. A seam opened down the center, dripping with purple blood.

Horror struck, the pilot took steps backward and pushed the button activating the auto-pilot. Knowing the ship is on the way to the planet with frozen poles, he fired more shots.

The seam opened up, revealing a hideous mass of tentacles dripping with purple blood, teeth, and indescribable stuff. In the center of the nightmare was the horribly mangled face of what used to be his friend.

Tentacles shot out and grabbed the pilot by the arm, breaking it, and another deprived him of his gun and smashed it against the far wall.

The alien male screamed out in horror, pain, and disgust. Pain from the broken arm, disgust at what he was seeing, and horror knowing even if he escaped, he's still infected. The alien male tried to struggle free but couldn't. He pulled at the tendril before another lashed out, grabbing and breaking his other arm.

Even more of the monstrous tentacles grabbed the alien's legs, coiled around the body, and lifted him up.

The pilot's screams were not words, they were pure horror and pain.

The tentacles smashed the pilot against the control panel, then the ceiling and wall, before dragging him towards the open maw of the monster. It opened up wider, revealing rows of bloodstained teeth and bladed tentacles designed to impale and shred.

Dragged in, the pilot was overcome by terror and pain, screaming and shrieking. His mind became full of thoughts of his family and friends, replaced by infected writhing bodies, children being killed, comrades turning on one another accusing each other of being the monster.. He felt his mind slowly going, his memories being erased by the creature until nothing was left.

As the teeth chewed and tentacles impaled and ripped his body apart, bit by bit, his last thought was of how he failed everyone.

Worse than dead, his mind and body was also the creature's, existing in eternal torment.

* * *

The ship fell out of faster than light speed near the planet, which would become known as Earth. The starship flew towards the South Pole on autopilot, hit the outer atmosphere, flipped over, and begun its fiery descent.

The Nrfaash-Thing sat in the seat, looking at the display panel, having absorbed the pilot within itself. The control panel was smashed beyond repair, but only a minor setback. It only needed to either eat all of the life on the planet and repair the ship, or go to sleep in the ice and await reawakening.

The ship plunged through the clouds, flipped over once more, and slammed into the South polar ice cap with great force, sending a plume of ice and water vapor into the air.

* * *

The hatch opened and the Nrfaash-Thing stumbled out, the crash had been rough indeed.

The creature walked out into the frozen wastelands. Nothing but the whiteness of an endless white wasteland met its vision.

It fell to the snow and ice, and gradually froze over in a hibernation state.

It would lie frozen for one hundred thousand years until some unfortunate humans stumble upon it and re-awaken a horror long thought gone from the galaxy.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Gave the story an update to improve it.**

 **And the one line the pilot yells-** **"Derzthe, gra besravud!"** **\- would mean something along the lines of "Die, you monster!"**


End file.
